Hampton U. Opens Spring Football Practice Monday

March 26, 1989|By TONY ANTHONY Staff Writer

HAMPTON — For Fred Freeman, the long ordeal of being arrested, suspended and appearing in court will be behind him Monday when he welcomes 52 players for spring football practice at Hampton University.

Freeman was reinstated as head coach recently by Dr. William R. Harvey, president of Hampton University, after a state court judge found Freeman not guilty of altering academic transcripts. The judge also dismissed five felony counts of forging records.

"I just want to put all that behind me and go forward," said Freeman, who will be starting his sixth year as head coach. "What's happened has happened. I've got to look ahead and look out for my team.

"We've got some outstanding starters coming back who have quite a bit of experience. I can't wait to get back into the coaching end of things."

Although the state court judge found Freeman not guilty, the NCAA and CIAA officials are still investigating all the happenings surrounding his case.

"We've always had a lot of closeness on my teams, and I want to keep it that way," said Freeman. "I didn't have to say anything to the team about my reinstatement ... they all seemed to understand, and I believe we can pick up where we left before all this came about."

HU has 10 offensive starters and seven defensive starters back from a team that went 7-3.

"We're experienced in a lot of key positions," said Freeman, who has three of the CIAA's top offensive threats back - quarterback Russell Johnson, tailback Tim Dudley and wide receiver Johnnie Barnes.

Johnson passed for 1,472 yards and 14 touchdowns, Dudley ran for 1,004 yards and scored 11 touchdowns while Barnes finished with over 951 yards in pass receptions and 10 touchdowns.

"As a field goal kicker, his range is between 35 to 40 yrads with any sort of consistency," Freeman said. "We can use the help in this area of our kicking game."

Two players who didn't play last year but will be ready this year are Terrance Warren of Suffolk's John F. Kennedy, a wide receiver/cornerback, and defensive end/tackle Davian Clifton of Portsmouth, a transfer from the University of Virginia.